Interior design and home improvement aren’t always about making substantial changes. Sure, adding an extension to your home or completely renovating the kitchen will make a significant leap towards improving the way your property looks and functions.
Nevertheless, you’ll be surprised at how big an impact some of the smaller interior design elements have on your home.
In the blog post below you’ll see an assortment of small things that every home has, along with explanations for why they impact your interior design so much – and how you can use them to increase your property’s aesthetic appeal. They often go unnoticed, but a few small changes will have a humungous impact.
Hardware & Fixtures
All homes are packed full of different hardware and fixtures that attach themselves to different things around the property. They’re all very small and unassuming, but you notice the difference when upgrading them. The best home hardware can transform certain spaces in your home and add a luxury feel to proceedings. It’s often a case of swapping out old and cheap-looking hardware/fixtures for more premium-looking items.
Here are a few examples to set you in the right direction:
- Door Handles: Every home has door handles, yet most of the time they appear as boring, chrome handles or knobs. There’s nothing special or alluring about these – though swapping them for premium brass or brushed metal transforms the door, and the rest of the interior. A room goes from looking bland to far more upmarket with the introduction of some new and improved door handles.
- Cabinet Handles: The same theory applies to cabinet handles/pulls/knobs. If you’re looking to renovate your kitchen on a budget, this is one of the smartest ideas to try. Upgrade your cabinets with new hardware and watch how they change the appeal of your space – especially when combined with another idea below.
- Faucets/Taps: Call them what you like, but a change to the faucets/taps on your sinks or bathroom fittings will make a considerable visual difference. Color code this with your cabinet or door handle changes to create a more synergistic look. If your kitchen cabinets now have lovely matt black handles, then a matt black tap amplifies this look.
You should get the idea by now; look at all of the small fixtures and hardware elements around your home and consider how you can upgrade them. These alterations make a massive difference because you’re actually changing so many things throughout your property. It all adds up to create a more striking interior design.
Lighting
Lighting is an enormous aspect of your home’s interior design, yet it always gets left in the dark – no pun intended. It’s quite remarkable how the right or wrong lighting can change any space and affect the mood it gives off.
There’s no use trying to create a lovely living room with cozy vibes if you always turn on the main ceiling light and bathe the place in utter brightness. You need to learn how to create mood lighting depending on the atmosphere you wish to elicit.
It’s all about adjusting the bulb color temperature to suit your needs – though lighting also gives you a couple more ways to improve a room’s aesthetic:
- Lamp Shades: Sometimes, swapping out your lamp shades for new ones makes the biggest difference in the world. You’ll notice this a lot when you move into a house and see really outdated shades on all the ceiling lights. Replace them with something newer and of a higher quality to make the room appear nicer.
- Light Switches: Technically you could add this to the hardware/fixtures section, but let’s bung it in here because it’s relevant to lighting. As explained above, swapping out cheap and plastic light switches with metal ones will add to your home’s interior design prominence.
Pay closer attention to your lighting so you can make your house look better than ever before. It’s all about getting the right lighting tone in each room, while also upgrading the switches and shades for a more premium finish.
Small Trims & Finishes
Your house is home to countless small trims, finishes, and edges that bring rooms together. Again, they’re always unnoticed because you focus on the bigger parts of a room’s design. Tidying up these edges or opting for upgraded finishes will turn the tide and make a stale room appear more alive.
Trims exist all throughout your home, though here are a couple to focus on:
- Skirting Boards: Swap out old and nearly rotten skirting boards with more refined options for a brilliant look. This allows you to be a bit creative, as you can play around with different colors or textures to complement a room’s existing interior.
- Coving: This is an interesting one because you can either swap out and improve old ceiling coving or add some when no coving exists. The latter is a smart way to make modern homes feel more period-style – or to simply add a new visual element to any room.
Cleanliness
The last thing we need to talk about is cleanliness.
A messy and dirty home will never reach its true visual potential. Common problems include seeing dust on surfaces, streaks on windows, dirt on skirting boards, and so on. Even things like slight scuff marks on door frames or flooring can ruin the way your property looks.
It’s time to be more vigilant with your maintenance and to begin cleaning your home with more purpose. Address all of the issues listed in the paragraph above and see how your home looks. Take a before picture of a room, clean all those elements mentioned, and take another photo. Compare the two and be stunned by how different the two images look.
Why invest time, energy, and money into massive-scale home renovations when smaller changes could be just as good? By all means a big renovation is beneficial, but maybe it’s better to start small and work your way up. For all you know, some slight changes to the hardware or trim around your home can be all it takes for things to feel different.
